Malawi blew its last chance-saloon to qualify for the Cosafa Castle Cup semI-finals after giving away early to lose against Angola on Tuesday in Kitwe, Zambia.

The Flames have vowed to make up for their Cosafa Cup exit by lifting themselves overdrive in this afternoon’s plate phase semi-final against Angola’s Neglas Palancas in Zambia.

The match is scheduled to
kick off at 3pm in Kitwe. At stake is R100 000 [about K3.5 million] which is the prize money for the plate phase winners.

Malawi were shown the exit by defending champions Zimbabwe Warriors through post-match penalties on
Saturday in Lusaka.

But captain Joseph ‘Shakira’ Kamwendo and team leader Moses Mkandawire said a win over Angola could offer
some solace to the
disappointed soccer
fraternity.

Said Kamwendo: “It is
unfortunate that we lost to Zimbabwe.

Penalties are a lottery, they can go either
way.
But we have put the
loss aside and we are
determined to pick up the
pieces starting with the
game against Angola.”

He also said there were lots of positives to be drawn from the Warriors game.

“It is good that the future of the team is looking bright,”
said Kamwendo who also
dismissed reports that he
refused to take a penalty
against Zimbabwe.

Reports were awash that
some senior players who are good penalty takers such as Kamwendo and Douglas Chirambo refused to take responsibility.

“Why are people talking too much as if they knew what’s going on? It is upsetting to hear what people talk sometimes.

“Anyway, let us leave it like that because there is no way ndingakane kumenya penalty. But I guess this is their time, so let them talk.

However, they need to realise that we are not stupid and we have families that get concerned when they hear such things,” said
Kamwendo.

Mkandawire, who is also FAM first vice-president, said they were working on lifting the spirits of the players following the loss to Zimbabwe.

“We needed to work on the psychological aspect
knowing that we are coming from a loss and we had a good meeting with both the players and the coaching panel,”
said Mkandawire.

The winner of today’s match will face the winner between Namibia and Mozambique in the plate final.